Crypto Market Overview August 22nd | Dex-Trade
Peter Schiff Makes FUD around Bitcoin Again
Founder of Euro Pacific Capital and SchiffGold, avid critic and Bitcoin skeptic, Peter Schiff, tweeted, referring to his August 14 tweet, that his pessimistic predictions about the behavior of the price of bitcoin came true, albeit not quite as he predicted. Schiff's previous post was published a few days before the current flagship crash, which was even more dramatic than the previous one. In a new tweet, he reminded the crypto community that he is still waiting for BTC at $10,000, as there are two bearish patterns on the chart — Double Top and Head and Shoulder Tops — Rising Wedge. Although according to a tweet by economist and fund manager Schiff, a drop to $10,000 is a minor loss. Of course, Schiff couldn’t help but mention that Bitcoin fell over 14% in the five days after his tweet and is currently trading at $21,400. The businessman himself wrote that although his last tweet was ignored, the time had come to sell BTC. In a June 16 tweet, Schiff predicted that BTC and ETH could drop to 100% soon. As a result, the leading coins fell by 30% and 40%, respectively. But the skeptic did not despair and said that as crypto-gold breaks through all the local bottoms and loses most of the buyers, “a real accident” will still await it.
Giant Gift Taxes on Airdrops: Get South Korea Ready
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance intends to introduce a new gift tax on the distribution of crypto assets, hinting at this in the interpretation of tax laws for freely transferable cryptocurrencies. The representative of the Ministry of Finance of the country spoke about the innovation in passing: “The free transfer of assets is a ‘gift’ under the Inheritance and Gift Tax Act. In this case, a gift tax will be levied on the third party to whom the virtual asset is transferred free of charge.” South Korean news outlet YNA subsequently reported that capital gains taxes on virtual assets would come into effect in 2025. However, the gift of virtual assets is still subject to applicable jurisdiction. Gift tax in South Korea applies to all objects of economic value that can be converted into money. Thus, an entity that has received a certain amount of digital assets as a gift will have to apply for gift tax within three months from the moment the funds are transferred to a personal wallet. At the same time, the tax fee can range from 10% to 50% of the total value of the gifts received. Officials also clarified that the only way to exclude airdrops from the gift tax is to create appropriate legislation that could regulate such assets.
Crypto Assets Stolen from the Ronin Bridge in March Were Transferred from ETH to BTC
Blockchain analyst ₿liteZero, which is tracking $625 million worth of digital coins stolen through the Ronin bridge, said that they were transferred from ETH to BTC using renBTC privacy tools, Bitcoin privacy tools Blender and ChipMixer. Most of the stolen funds were initially converted into ETH and sent to the currently sanctioned Ethereum Tornado Cash crypto mixer, after which it was transferred to the Bitcoin blockchain and converted to BTC via the Ren protocol. According to a SlowMist report, the notorious hacking organization, the Lazarus Group, which is sponsored by the North Korean government, was involved in the attack. Initially, the criminals transferred only part of the stolen fund, namely 6,249 ETH, to centralized exchanges. 5,028 ETH was sent to Huobi, the largest South Korean trading platform, and another 1,219 ETH went to the hot wallet of the FTX exchange. Then a long chain of exchanges of stolen assets was built, involving many centralized and decentralized exchanges, exchangers and mixers, the purpose of which was to cover up any traces of the thieves. ₿liteZero created a giant Twitter thread that ended with a reminder that the Ronin bridge hack remains a “mystery to be investigated” where more progress clearly needs to be made.
